I was thinking about the Sandy Hook Promise: Gun violence warning signs video where a stereotypical teen romance story plays out and in the background someone gives off warning signs that they’re going to go on a shooting spree and it’s made me wonder if there are movies that follow a similar setup of building something up in the background just to have it completely overtake the main story line.
Like an average city girl following in love with a prince but you see protests and other signs of civil unrest in the background and the prince gets assassinated at the wedding. Maybe some kind of story that ends in 9/11 or the Cold War turning hot. Some kind of discount M. Night Shyamalan-style twist.
I vaguely remember some cop or cop adjacent tv show where a character thought that his neighbors were terrorists. They event went so far as to have him knock on the door and apologize, only to have the door close and show the inside of a bomb making setup.
Maybe Arlington Road? Love that movie.